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Pakistan is ground zero in the struggle against terrorism at the moment: 1) because Afghanistan has been largely subdued, 2) because there are lots of terrorists operating in Pakistan, 3) because of the incredible weakness of Pakistan’s government, and 4) because Pakistan has nuclear weapons.

We simply cannot afford to walk away from Pakistan, no matter how galling their behavior has been, without losing everything we have fought for over the last 10 years. We should ask the Pakistanis some hard questions, and we should find and extirpate those who harbored Osama bin Laden. But it would be the height of folly to disengage with Pakistan right now. If anything, we should shift resources toward fighting terrorism in Pakistan.

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